Last Call For Who Ditches Mitch?

The Kentucky Democratic Senate primary to go up against Mitch McConnell was all about former fighter pilot Amy McGrath, who made a solid run at knocking off Andy Barr in Lexington in a 51-48% loss in 2018 and has spent the last 18 months girding up for taking on the Turtle. McGrath has acted all along like she had already won the primary and has a considerable war chest to prove it.

I say was because the primary, just ten days away now, is about to get competitive here in the home stretch.

Amy McGrath is a national Democratic icon for her bid to take out Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader and reviled figure on the left, raising tens of millions of dollars to fuel her campaign.

But McConnell isn't the opponent McGrath, a former fight pilot, is sweating most right now. Instead, it's her rival in the June 23 Democratic primary: Charles Booker, a state lawmaker who was virtually ignored for months but now has all the momentum in the closing days of the election.
Booker has been endorsed by Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Kentucky’s two largest newspapers. And the recent protests over racial injustice and police misconduct in Louisville, Booker's hometown, has shined a spotlight on a candidate who otherwise might have been left in the wake of McGrath's television ad blitz.

McGrath is the favorite of the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm and many sitting senators, and it’s hard to imagine she could lose a primary in which she’s outspent her opponents combined by a nearly 30-1 margin through early June. But there are signs it's turning into a real race: Booker is panning McGrath as a bland national Democrat who is predictably tacking to the center, while McGrath is biting back at Booker, accusing him of talking a big game on health care and voting rights but not backing it up.

"I don't really know what position Amy McGrath takes because she goes back and forth on everything depending on what consultants seem to say,” Booker said in an interview. “I know that Kentuckians can smell BS from miles away.”

“I’m not, as Mr. Booker claims, 'a pro-Trump Democrat.' I’m pro-Kentucky and pro-America,” McGrath said, refuting her top opponent in a POLITICO interview after months of keeping her fire trained on McConnell.

McGrath's position as McConnell's leading challenger and the then-viral advertising for her failed 2018 House bid have made her a darling of Democratic small donors. As of early June, she had a staggering $19 million in cash on hand, more than McConnell's 2014 opponent, then-Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, spent for the entire election — and that's after already running more than $8 million in TV ads.

She's not just using that spending advantage to pummel voters with advertising. She's also touting her campaign’s high wages, generous health care and efforts to inform people about changes to voting amid the pandemic — contrasting herself with Booker and underdog Mike Broihier.

“It’s really disappointing that I’m the only candidate in the Democratic primary that has the integrity to lead on these issues within their own campaigns," she said.

But beneath her powerhouse fundraising, there are signs of struggles. McGrath had a bumpy rollout last year, saying in one of her first interviews that she would have supported Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, only to reverse herself later that day. More recently, Republican governors and Cindy McCain, the late Sen. John McCain’s widow, condemned ads of hers using their images to attack McConnell.

And McGrath has few substantial in-state endorsements, while Booker has been endorsed by prominent Kentucky media and close to two-dozen elected officials.

“There's not a lot of enthusiasm for Amy among Democrats. Charles’ supporters are very enthusiastic,” said one prominent Kentucky Democrat, who requested anonymity to speak candidly.

Booker has taken the lead on Black Lives Matter issues in the state after the murder of Breonna Taylor at the hands of the LMPD while McGrath has been concentrating on McConnell, and the ground has absolutely shifted under her feet in the last three weeks.

The real question is who has the best shot at dethroning Mitch McConnell, when both of them are long shots at best?

My brain says McGrath can keep it close, but Booker would be an amazing shift.  I just don't think he can beat Mitch.

We'll see.

Orange Meltdown, Con't

It seems somebody at the White House managed to convince Trump that Stephen Miller's too-clever-by-half idea of Trump resuming his racist roadshow rallies starting in Tulsa on Juneteenth was in fact a horrific idea that was going to get his hatefest blacked out or boycotted by the networks, and that apparently was enough to convince him to reschedule.

President Donald Trump announced late Friday night that he is rescheduling a rally that was to be held on June 19 -- Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States -- "out of respect for this holiday." 

Trump's decision to hold his first campaign rally in months on the holiday was met with widespread criticism amid the national outcry following George Floyd's death at the hands of police officers and nationwide protests about police brutality and racial inequality. 

"We had previously scheduled our #MAGA Rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for June 19th -- a big deal," Trump tweeted. "Unfortunately, however, this would fall on the Juneteenth Holiday. Many of my African American friends and supporters have reached out to suggest that we consider changing the date out of respect for this Holiday, and in observance of this important occasion and all that it represents. I have therefore decided to move our rally to Saturday, June 20th, in order to honor their requests." 

Earlier Friday, Trump denied in an interview with Fox News that the rally was purposefully scheduled for June 19 in Tulsa -- the site of one of the worst atrocities against African Americans in the nation's history a century ago -- and instead said it should be thought of as a "celebration."

"It's an interesting date. It wasn't done for that reason, but it's an interesting date," he said.

I'm betting Ivanka and Jared pointed this out to the old man, and that convinced him that Stephen Miller was putting one over on him. What really convinced Trump though is that whoever did tell him this must have pointed out that the networks would be under massive pressure not to carry him if he went through on the 19th, but they would have to if he rescheduled for later in the month.

Maybe it was Hannity, maybe it was Ben Carson or Jerome Adams, maybe it was a wealthy black Republican donor like BET's Bob Johnson who called him up, I don't know. But somebody sure talked him out of this Friday night.

Trump loves revenge more than anything and a rally in Tulsa on Juneteenth was definitely a message of vengeance and punishment to the Black community, but if there is something he loves more than petty vengeance, it's his own image in the press as the great white savior of Black America. Trump wants to believe that we black folk love him, because his malignant narcissism demands it, and that delusion is about the only thing that can stand up to his constant desire for destroying everyone who doesn't love him.

Of course, it means the man in the Oval Office is easily manipulated by others, a fact not lost on, well, every foe the United States has (and basically all of our allies).

The Country Goes Viral, Con't

COVID-19 hasn't just gone away, folks.

The US could suffer 130,000 coronavirus deaths by July 4, according to a projection released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

And Covid-19 cases could rise this summer as states reopen, the CDC's deputy director for infectious diseases said during a conference call with reporters. 

"If anything, we must be overprepared for what we might face later this year," said Dr. Jay Butler. "Getting the flu vaccine will be more important than ever, as flu and Covid-19 could be circulating together as we move into the fall and winter months." 

More cities and states have reported increasing rates of new coronavirus cases per day as the nationwide total number of cases passed 2 million this week. 

According to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University, 19 states have increasing case rates, several of which have seen record or near-record highs. And for the first time, rising caseloads have led some officials to delay phased re-opening plans. 

Months into the pandemic, more than 114,300 people in the US have died, according to Johns Hopkins, with about 1,000 deaths reported each day. 

"We know the pandemic is not over," Butler said.

That 130,000 number makes sense if you expect the 1,000/day number to remain constant or drop slightly, but I think the number of deaths is going to rise significantly before July 4 and keep rising throughout next month as hospitals are overwhelmed.  New York planned for the worst *and* made a lot of mistakes, but they got lucky.  Texas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, these places are opening back up restaurants and theaters at full capacity in the next week or two and it's going to get bad fast.

Social distancing is all but dead.

It's going to take another massive wave of deaths to fix that.

The Mustache's Revenge

John Bolton's Mustache's book will be out in under two weeks, and we're already getting leaks of the story of Trump's disaster circus through his impeachment.

John Bolton taunts President Trump, his former boss, on the back cover of his forthcoming book: "Game on." 

In a memoir coming June 23 that the White House has tried to delay, former national security adviser Bolton will offer multiple revelations about Trump’s conduct in office, with direct quotes by the president and senior officials, according to a source familiar with the book.

Why it matters: Bolton, who was U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under President George W. Bush, is a lifelong conservative and longtime Fox News contributor who is well-known by the Trump base, the source pointed out. 

In "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir," Bolton will go beyond Ukraine, and argue there was "Trump misconduct with other countries," the source said. 

Axios agreed to grant anonymity to the source in order to give readers a window into the book ahead of publication.

Behind the scenes: People close to Trump have been worried about the book because Bolton was known as the most prolific note taker in high-level meetings, Jonathan Swan reports. 

Bolton would sit there, filling yellow legal pad after yellow legal pad with notes.
In short: Bolton saw a lot, and he wrote it down in real time. And when he left, the White House never got those notes back.

The juiciest parts of the book will end up in the press, I'm sure.  But all this explains why Trump wants to get out and have at least one rally before Bolton ruins the rest of his summer, not that Trump isn't doing an amazing job of ruining everyone's summer by himself.

Of course, Bolton refused to release this information when it could have actually been used to stop the man he purportedly hates so much, but then again he wouldn't be getting this big fat check for his book advance, huh.

It's always a grift with Republicans.  Always.

Last Call For Retribution Execution, Con't

Never forget that the primary goal of the Trump regime is to exterminate every possible legacy of Barack Obama and to use federal power to directly punish the coalition of voters that chose Clinton over Trump.

The Trump administration Friday finalized a rule that would remove nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people when it comes to health care and health insurance.

"HHS respects the dignity of every human being, and as we have shown in our response to the pandemic, we vigorously protect and enforce the civil rights of all to the fullest extent permitted by our laws as passed by Congress," said Roger Severino, who directs the Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Health and Human Services, in written statement announcing that the HHS rule had become final. The rule is set to go into effect by mid-August.

This is one of many rules and regulations put forward by the Trump administration that defines "sex discrimination" as only applying when someone faces discrimination for being male or female, and does not protect people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Supporters of the rule say this is a necessary reversal of Obama-era executive overreach, and will reduce confusion about the legal meaning of "sex discrimination." Critics argue the rule could further harm an already vulnerable group — transgender people — in the midst of a pandemic and historic unrest spurred by the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

"I can't help but wonder if the timing [of this rule] is by design so that this is something that people won't pay attention to," says Tia Sherèe Gaynor, a political science professor at the University of Cincinnati.

Defining trans people as non-existent in federal law so that they literally cannot be discriminated against is pretty evil.  But it's not just trans folks who will suffer.

The rule focuses on nondiscrimination protections laid out in Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. That federal law established that it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of "race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability in certain health programs and activities." In 2016, an Obama-era rule explained that protections regarding "sex" encompass those based on gender identity, which it defined as "male, female, neither, or a combination of male and female."

In June 2019, under Trump, the HHS Office for Civil Rights proposed a rule (the one finalized this week) that reverses the one from the Obama administration. Severino explained at the time, "We're going back to the plain meaning of those terms, which is based on biological sex." He also said the rule could save hospitals and insurers and others $2.9 billion over five years, since they will be relieved of the requirement to print notices of non-discrimination in several languages and include them with any "significant" mailings.

Under the new rule, a transgender person could, for example, be refused care for a checkup at a doctor's office, explains Lindsey Dawson associate director of HIV Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Other possible scenarios include a transgender man being denied treatment for ovarian cancer, or a hysterectomy not being covered by an insurer — or costing more when the procedure is related to someone's gender transition.

The Trump rule makes changes to gender-based discrimination protections beyond Section 1557 of the ACA; it affects regulations pertaining to access to health insurance, for example, including cost-sharing, health plan marketing, and benefits. Under the new rule, an insurance company could "charge higher premiums or other fees for those who are LGBTQ [or] cancel or deny coverage," Dawson says. The rule could also mean that those seeking an abortion could be denied care if performing the procedure violates the provider's moral or religious beliefs.

Even with the rule now finalized, an LGBTQ person who is discriminated against or denied health care can still sue, and courts may rule that their civil rights were violated in such a case. But that's not an easy avenue, says Dawson.

"Because of limited access to litigation, I think that it's fair to state that the ramifications [of this rule] could be pretty significant," she says. Protections will also vary based on where someone lives, she adds, so the rule "creates a patchwork of civil rights, compared to standardized protections."

Doing this during Pride Month, during nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, during a global health pandemic, during a period in which a record number of black trans folks are being murdered (the latest being right here in Cincinnati), and on the 4th anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando is 100%, absolutely on purpose and straight-up evil incarnate.

Period. Full stop.

Vote out these assholes in November.

Republican Conventional Warfare, Con't

Me, last week, on the GOP moving the Republican National Convention out of Charlotte:

I fully expect the convention to be moved before the end of the month.  Trump will demand it. He will not tolerate anyone standing up to his bullying and performative chaos, and Trump figures it will cost Cooper a second term in November against Cooper's Republican Lt. Governor, Dan Forest (Governor and Lieutenant Governor have always been separate elections in NC, which makes for some weird stuff like this.)

The GOP, Thursday afternoon:

Officials announced Thursday that the main event of the Republican National Convention will now be held in Jacksonville, Florida instead of Charlotte.
The new location of the August convention will also include President Donald Trump’s acceptance speech.

“We are thrilled to celebrate this momentous occasion in the great city of Jacksonville,” said RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. “Not only does Florida hold a special place in President Trump’s heart as his home state, but it is crucial in the path to victory in 2020. We look forward to bringing this great celebration and economic boom to the Sunshine State in just a few short months.”

Officials said the celebration of Trump’s re-nomination will take place at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.

The decision comes after North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper voiced concerns about holding a full-scale convention. The governor balked at promising Trump a full-blown convention in Charlotte without social distancing measures during the coronavirus pandemic.

The RNC voted Wednesday to hold a significantly scaled-down convention in Charlotte, allowing the party’s more mundane business, including discussions over the platform, to be held in the Queen City because of contractual obligations.

The decision means a little more than 300 delegates will come to Charlotte to officially select Trump as the party’s nominee. That will likely be the only official business actually done in the city. 

A proposal from Republican State Rep. John Torbett of Gaston to keep Trump in Charlotte for the Republican National Convention will not go up for a vote.

The Republican National Committee, which oversees the convention says Jacksonville, Florida is the top site for Trump to accept his party’s nomination. The last ditch-effort by state lawmakers contradicted Cooper’s insistence that the state could not promise a full capacity crowd because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While Trump will speak elsewhere, the RNC insists some of its business activities will continue to be held in Charlotte.

So Charlotte can't sue for breach of contract, and Trump gets his convention floor filled with slavering fans, with yet another opportunity for a massive spike in Florida's COVID-19 infections, all to placate Trump's massive ego. An almost Trumpian solution to a 100% Trump-created disaster.

Ohio Goes Viral, Con't

Ohio's top public health official, Dr. Amy Acton, has resigned over anti-COVID-19 lunatics stalking her family.

Turning down pleas from Gov. Mike DeWine to stay on the job, Dr. Amy Acton surprisingly resigned Thursday as director of the Ohio Department of Health amid the coronavirus pandemic.

DeWine said Acton’s resignation is effective Thursday, although she now will become his chief health adviser.

“It is difficult for me to put in words how grateful I am for Dr. Acton’s service to the state,” he said.

The governor said he has asked Acton, who was appointed health director on Feb. 26, 2019, to “take a big-picture look” at improving public health while still working to address the pandemic.

Acton became both a beloved and polarizing figure to Ohioans for her candid, personal talks at televised coronavirus news briefings and for issuing orders closing down parts of the state’s economy that some found excessive.

Thursday, Acton praised local health officials, members of her team and those on the front lines of battling the pandemic. She also thanked her family and the governor — and the State Highway Patrol protective detail assigned to her after threats.

“Her knowledge, compassion and determination have set an example for all of us, and Dr. Acton’s extraordinary bedside manner and wise counsel have helped us all get through this pandemic,” DeWine said.

Asked why she quit, Acton said she couldn’t do justice to what amounts to three jobs at once. She said she now will have time to spend with her family, whose Bexley home has attracted protesters, some armed.

So congrats, "COVID hoax" nutjobs, you drove off yet another dedicated public health official so you can feel better about stuffing your face at Golden Corral on Sundays and not tipping the waitstaff.

And let's not forget the anti-semitic attacks from Ohio Republicans too.

An Ohio state representative drew criticism for calling the state’s Jewish Department of Health director a “globalist.” 

In a Facebook post on Friday, Rep. Nino Vitale said the director, Amy Acton, was denying state residents their human rights by extending a stay-at-home order until May 29. 

“Your basic human rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness do not come from an unelected Globalist Health Director, who signed the order in the dark of night. Your basic human rights are inalienable and cannot be bought, sold, traded or taken from you,” Vitale wrote in a post on Facebook on Friday and in a letter to supporters. 

Vitale’s Facebook page has since become unavailable, but in a note on his campaign website Vitale said “it appears web search engines and web relays are currently banning my Facebook page.” 

In a statement, the Cleveland office of the Anti-Defamation League urged Vitale to apologize for using the term, which recalls the anti-Semitic stereotype that a Jewish cabal secretly controls the world. 

“Whether Rep. Vitale purposely invoked anti-Semitism or not, we strongly urge him to remove that term from his vocabulary, and to issue an apology to Dr. Acton and the entire Jewish community. ADL is willing and able to provide Rep. Vitale, and all elected officials, training on anti-Semitism,” the ADL wrote on Facebook. 

Vitale’s statement comes a week after the wife of an Ohio state senator compared Acton’s support for the idea of issuing certificates to people who had proven immunity to COVID-19 to Nazi Germany. The senator, Andrew Brenner, later apologized to Acton and the Jewish community.

Vitale is also in trouble over Black Lives Matter comments.  I'll tell you what, Kentucky may be full of racists, but there are times where it has nothing on Ohio.

StupidiNews!

• Louisville's metro council unanimously passed "Breonna's Law" eliminating no-knock raids by the city police department after Breonna Taylor was killed by police in her own home in March.
• A Tennessee judge is threatening the state's election officials with criminal contempt unless the state expands voting-by-mail under a previous judicial order.
• Major US stock indexes dropped more than 6% on Thursday as fears of a second wave of COVID-19 infections threatens the fragile American economy.
• Joint Chiefs of Staff head General Mark Milley apologized to troops on Thursday saying he should have never participated in Donald Trump's now infamous St. John's Church photo op.
• Knoxville, Tennessee is the latest city government to be shut down by ransomware attacks, more than 50 US cities and counties have been hit by ransomware attacks in 2020 alone.

Last Call For Mnuchin's Lootin' And Scootin'

So where's the accountability on the two-thirds of a trillion dollars of Treasury Department CARES/PPP loans? We'll never have it, and you're an awful person for asking, because Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin says nobody in America needs to know who got what.

Federal officials responsible for spending $660 billion in taxpayer-backed small-business assistance said Wednesday that they will not disclose amounts or recipients of subsidized loans, backtracking on an earlier commitment to release individual loan data.

The Small Business Administration has previously released detailed loan information dating to 1991 for the federal 7(a) program, a long-standing small-business loan program on which the larger Paycheck Protection Program is based.

The SBA initially intended to publish similar information for the new coronavirus-related loans. An SBA spokesman told The Washington Post in an April 16 email that the agency “intend[s] to post individual loan data in accordance with the information presently on the SBA.gov website after the loan process has been completed,” and it made a similar commitment in response to an April 17 open records request.

But the administration appeared to change course at a hearing Wednesday before the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza declined to discuss specific borrowers.

“As it relates to the names and amounts of specific PPP loans, we believe that that’s proprietary information, and in many cases for sole proprietors and small businesses, it is confidential information,” Mnuchin said in the hearing. “The reason why we’re not disclosing the names and amounts, unlike in the 7(a) program, is because of that issue.”

The Post is among 11 news organizations suing the SBA for access to records on loan recipients, amounts of loans and other basic information the agency has previously released. In response to questions from The Post on Wednesday, a Treasury Department spokesman said that disclosing “loan-level data” would risk the confidential business information of loan recipients.

So this will be tied up in the courts for years most likely, and while there's a chance we may know, the Trump regime will simply run out the clock by running to SCOTUS.  The only way we'll ever find out is if Joe Biden wins in November.

Keep that in mind.  Otherwise, the Trumpies get away with literally stealing hundreds of billions of dollars.

Retribution Execution, Con't

The Trump regime continues to declare war on international bodies and Trump refuses to hold anyone accountable for international crimes in his regime, let alone allow international organizations to investigate.  Trump turned up the heat this week by authorizing sanctions and travel bans on International Criminal Court employees as the ICC keeps on attempting and failing to try to investigate the US over war crimes in Afghanistan.

President Donald Trump lobbed a broadside attack Thursday against the International Criminal Court by authorizing economic sanctions and travel restrictions against court workers involved in investigating American troops and intelligence officials and those of allied nations, including Israel, for possible war crimes in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Trump’s executive order marked his administration’s latest attack against international organizations, treaties and agreements that don’t hew to its policies. It would block the financial assets of court employees and bar those employees and their immediate relatives from entering the United States.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced The Hague-based tribunal as a “kangaroo court” that has been unsuccessful and inefficient in its mandate to prosecute war crimes. He said that the U.S. would punish the ICC employees for any investigation or prosecution of Americans in Afghanistan and added that they could also be banned for prosecuting Israelis for alleged abuses against Palestinians.

Pompeo’s comments were echoed by Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Attorney General Wiliiam Barr and national security adviser Robert O’Brien, who spoke at a State Department announcement of the new measures. Barr also announced that the U.S. would investigate possible corruption within the ICC hierarchy that he said raised suspicions that Russia and other adversaries could be interfering in the investigatory process.

None of the four men took questions from reporters at the event.

The Hague-based court was created in 2002 to prosecute war crimes and crimes of humanity and genocide in areas where perpetrators might not otherwise face justice. It has 123 state parties that recognize its jurisdiction.

Human rights groups deplored the Trump administration’s move.

“The Trump administration’s latest action paves the way for imposing sanctions against ICC officials and demonstrates contempt for the global rule of law,” said Andrea Prasow, the Washington director of Human Rights Watch. “This assault on the ICC is an effort to block victims of serious crimes whether in Afghanistan, Israel or Palestine from seeing justice. Countries that support international justice should publicly oppose this blatant attempt at obstruction.”

The US has ignored the ICC since its creation, Bush and Obama refused to recognize any authority the ICC may have, but they didn't threaten employees. Trump on the other hand looks like he's making good on Pence's threat to expel ICC employees and basically destroy the organization's funding with economic sanctions.

The EU is concerned of course, but nothing will happen in the long run.  Even if Trump is defeated, I surely don't expect Biden to join the ICC and even if he tried, Senate Republicans would block any attempt to ratify joining.

Investigating the US for war crimes will never happen.  Not in my lifetime.

Lowering The Barr, Con't

The outside judge that Judge Emmet Sullivan asked to take a look at Justice Department's obviously corrupt request to drop all charges against Michael Flynn has come back with a blistering report that nails Flynn for perjury and all but concludes that Attorney General Bill Barr must resign.

Michael Flynn committed perjury, and his guilty plea of lying to the FBI should not be dismissed, a court-appointed adviser argued to a federal judge Wednesday, calling the Justice Department’s attempt to undo the conviction corrupt, politically motivated and “a gross abuse of prosecutorial power.”

In a formal briefing to the judge overseeing Flynn’s case, former New York federal judge John Gleeson said Flynn’s guilt “could hardly be more provable.” He issued a sharp rebuke of the Justice Department’s move to abandon the long-running case and called out President Trump for refusing to accept “settled foundational norms of prosecutorial independence.”

“The Government has engaged in highly irregular conduct to benefit a political ally of the President,” Gleeson wrote in an 82-page brief to U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan.

Gleeson argued that though Flynn committed perjury by first admitting under oath to lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts and then seeking to rescind his guilty plea, Trump’s former national security adviser should not face a contempt hearing but instead be punished as part of his sentence.

“Flynn has indeed committed perjury in these proceedings, for which he deserves punishment, and the Court has the authority to initiate a prosecution for that crime,” Gleeson wrote. However, Gleeson said, moving Flynn’s case to sentencing “— rather than a separate prosecution for perjury or contempt — aligns with the Court’s intent to treat this case, and this Defendant, in the same way it would any other.”

Sullivan has paused Flynn’s case to hear from outside groups and appointed Gleeson to argue against the Justice Department’s May 7 motion to immediately drop its prosecution of the retired three-star general. Flynn was the highest-ranking Trump adviser convicted in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Sullivan has set a July 16 hearing to weigh the unusual request, which came after Attorney General William P. Barr ordered a review of Flynn’s case. In the Justice Department’s motion, which is supported by Flynn and prompted a career department prosecutor to quit the case, the agency said it concluded that Flynn’s January 2017 FBI interview was unjustified. The Justice Department also said the interview was “conducted without any legitimate investigative basis,” so any lies Flynn told about his contacts with Russia and other foreign governments were immaterial to any crime.

The department cited newly uncovered FBI records showing the bureau had decided to close a counterintelligence investigation of Flynn before learning of his calls with former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The Justice Department said FBI officials also knew that the calls probably did not give rise to a crime by themselves and differed over how to handle or interpret his actions.

 It won't matter much in the end, either way, Flynn will be pardoned if Sullivan refuses to drop the charges. But it does matter that we still have a judicial interested in preserving the rule of law, if only to serve as an example as to what is at stake in November.

StupidiNews!

• US Solicitor General Noel Francisco is expected to step down from his position as the government's top lawyer before the US Supreme Court in the next several days.
• A New York Times report finds that thousands of rounds of live ammunition were stored in the Washington, DC National Guard Armory for potential use against Black Lives Matter protesters.
• American Indian Movement activists brought down the statue of Christopher Columbus in St. Paul's Capitol Square, several arrests are expected to be made.
• Donald Trump says he will not bow to pressure to rename Confederate military installations, halting Pentagon talks after several military officials broached the subject.
• A 13,300-year-old bird figurine was found in a Chinese trash heap, researchers say the bone figuring could be one of the oldest cultural artifacts in the nation.

Last Call For Orange Meltdown, Con't

The Trump regime is terrified.  They know they are going to lose and lose badly.

One week ago President Donald Trump met with advisers from his 2020 re-election campaign, who greeted him with bad news.

The campaign's internal poll numbers showed the president down in swing states, and down with key demographics of voters including women and independents.
The messaging from the White House on the coronavirus pandemic and the growing anger about the brutal killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis was fueling a drop in his numbers. Top aides warned that former Vice President Joe Biden, now the presumptive Democratic nominee, was positioned to defeat the president by a significant number of electoral votes based on the campaign's analysis, according to multiple sources familiar with the meeting.

While some of the president’s advisers insisted the current campaign internal poll numbers aren’t relevant in gauging Trump’s re-election chances this far from November, others among his most loyal and longest serving advisers have developed a new posture: one of increasing alarm. They fear that without a course correction -- and quickly -- Donald Trump could lose the 2020 presidential election.

This account of the president and his advisers' struggle to respond to the ongoing crises and the political fallout is based on conversations with 17 sources including White House officials, campaign advisers and sources close to the president. 

As I've said in the last week, Trump is trapped and he's up against three foes that he has no clue how to deal with: a financial depression, a pandemic that he can't gaslight away, and a population that no longer fears his power.

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd on May 25, some White House officials have been lobbying the president to give a formal address to the nation from the Oval Office to show he was taking the death and the growing protests around the country seriously. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was in favor of the idea. Meadows believed it was a moment for the president to deliver a message of unity, according to sources familiar with his thinking.

Others, like the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, were against such an address, arguing it could do more harm than good, according to four sources. A source close to Kushner disputed that categorization, saying instead the goal has been to announce a policy initiative that will have an impact.

The president has also been encouraged to participate in listening sessions with African American leaders, as he has hosted previously at the White House. But that idea was rejected by the commander-in-chief, according to sources.

A person who has attended similar events as a guest of the president previously told ABC News they heard from a White House official to "be on standby" for an event with the president, but then nothing ever materialized.

Trump is "not capable of showing empathy here," said the source, who is still a loyal supporter of the president.

Trump is probably the least capable chief executive in the country's history, and he cannot resolve this issue himself using the only tactics he knows.  So, he's going to ignore both and head out back on the road next week.

President Donald Trump’s signature campaign rallies are back in business, after a gap of more than three months because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump announced on Wednesday that his reelection campaign would be holding a rally in Tulsa, Okla., on June 19 and would also be holding rallies in Florida, Texas and Arizona — as well as an event in North Carolina “at an appropriate time.”
The president made the announcement at a roundtable with African American leaders at the White House, hailing the “great job” that Oklahoma has done combating coronavirus. As of Tuesday, Oklahoma had recorded 353 coronavirus deaths and 7,363 positive cases.

The Tulsa rally next week will be held on Juneteenth, a national commemoration of the end of slavery in the U.S.

Tulsa.  On Juneteenth.  A century ago, the site of Black Wall Street, destroyed by white racists in one of the deadliest mass lynchings in American history.

Trump will flaunt both COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter with a two-for-one asshole special. I smell Trump Minister of Racial Purity Stephen Miller's taint behind this little maneuver.

And it will be arguably the worst speech of Trump's career.

Black Lives Still Matter, Con't

This time really is different.

Attitudes about Black Lives Matter after the death of George Floyd, especially among white Americans, has changed since the Obama years and has seismically shifted in just the last two weeks.

American public opinion can sometimes seem stubborn. Voters haven’t really changed their views on abortion in 50 years. Donald J. Trump’s approval rating among registered voters has fallen within a five-point range for just about every day of his presidency.

But the Black Lives Matter movement has been an exception from the start.

Public opinion on race and criminal justice issues has been steadily moving left since the first protests ignited over the fatal shootings of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. And since the death of George Floyd in police custody on May 25, public opinion on race, criminal justice and the Black Lives Matter movement has leaped leftward.

Over the last two weeks, support for Black Lives Matter increased by nearly as much as it had over the previous two years, according to data from Civiqs, an online survey research firm. By a 28-point margin, Civiqs finds that a majority of Americans support the movement, up from a 17-point margin before the most recent wave of protests began.
The survey is not the only one to suggest that recent protests enjoy broad public support. Weekly polling for the Democracy Fund’s U.C.L.A./Nationscape survey shows a significant increase in unfavorable views of the police, and an increase in the belief that African-Americans face a lot of discrimination.

Perhaps most significant, the Civiqs data is not alone in suggesting that an outright majority of Americans agree with the central arguments of Black Lives Matter.

A Monmouth University poll found that 76 percent of Americans consider racism and discrimination a “big problem,” up 26 points from 2015. The poll found that 57 percent of voters thought the anger behind the demonstrations was fully justified, while a further 21 percent called it somewhat justified. Polls show that a majority of Americans believe that the police are more likely to use deadly force against African-Americans, and that there’s a lot of discrimination against black Americans in society. Back in 2013, when Black Lives Matter began, a majority of voters disagreed with all of these statements.

I've openly said that Obama's support for Black Lives Matter turned many white voters against the Democratic party in his second term, and Hillary Clinton's support for it basically doomed her 2016 candidacy in the Rust Belt and Sun Belt. White voters did not want to hear or think about police brutality and racism still existing after Obama's election, having fully bought into the historic nature of the nation's first black president being proof that racism had been conquered and was no longer a problem.

When that turned out to not be the case, white voters got angry.  And they turned to Trump in order to punish the Obama coalition of voters. The rest is our dark history of the last four years.

But if these numbers are right, white voters have seen so much police brutality on TV against everyone that they're now supporting Black Lives Matter and finally realized we were right all along and that cops are out of control.

In other words, Donald Trump's collapse in the last three months has been so complete that white voters think Black Lives Matter liberalism and Joe Biden are better by comparison.

Good job, Donny.

Our Little Domestic Terrorism Problem, Con't

The white supremacist domestic terrorists arrested last week in Las Vegas were absolutely on board to kill as many people of color as possible and fomenting a race war in the wake of George Floyd's death, and they had a very good plan for getting it done.

FBI agents found rags, gasoline, aerosol cans and weapons along with booby traps, fireworks and handwritten notes of military and survival tactics while serving search warrants on three Nevada men who authorities say sought to spark violence during recent Las Vegas protests, according to police reports obtained Monday.

U.S. prosecutors say Stephen T. Parshall, 35, Andrew T. Lynam Jr., 23, and William L. Loomis, 40, have ties to a loose movement of right-wing extremists advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government. Authorities said the men hoped to carry out a plan to create civic unrest by capitalizing on protests over businesses closed due to the coronavirus and later, the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis after a white officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes.

Parshall, Lynam and Loomis, all white men with U.S. military experience, each currently face two federal charges: conspiracy to damage and destroy by fire and explosive, and possession of unregistered firearms. They also face charges of felony conspiracy, terrorism and explosives possession in state court.

They were arrested May 30 as they prepared to attend a protest of Floyd's death after filling gas cans at a parking lot and making Molotov cocktails in glass bottles, prosecutors said in charging documents.
In the bed of Parshall's truck, the FBI found strips of red rags and gasoline, according to a police arrest report. Inside the truck were aerosol cans and weapons.

Inside Loomis' home, the FBI found handwritten notes of military tactics, possible scouting routes and locations outside the city limits. They also found “kill boxes, survival tactics, fireworks as distractions," an explosive made of material used primarily for target practice and other traps, according to a police report.

The FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Nevada did not respond to messages seeking more information about the “kill boxes.”

Attorney Robert Draskovich, representing Parshall, said his client intends to plead not guilty and will fight the charges.

“This case is based primarily on a confidential informant, which is inherently unreliable,” Draskovich said Monday. “I’m concerned about what this person has to gain by telling this story.”

Lawyers for Loomis and Lynam did not immediately respond Monday to messages seeking comment.

The complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas last week said the men self-identified as part of the anti-government “boogaloo” movement, a loose, internet-rooted network of gun enthusiasts who often express support for overthrowing the U.S. government. Its name, a reference to a 1984 movie sequel called “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo,” is a code word for a second civil war.

The men are being held on $1 million bond each in the Clark County jail. They're due to make court appearances next week.

I guarantee you a whole lot more of these jackasses are out there, waiting to strike.  The FBI keeps finding these guys, but eventually that luck will run out.